Friday, December 12, 2008

The New *improved* salesforce.com - Fact or Fiction

Image representing Salesforce as depicted in C...Image via CrunchBase, source unknownAs salesforce.com's Success in the Cloud Tour touched down on Philadelphia's Columbus Boulevard earlier this week, Customer Relationship Management (CRM ) gurus, admins and trainers began to wonder if this tour would huff, puff, or blow the CRM house down.

Turns out, it did none of the above. The Success in the Cloud Tour simply reestablished sf.com's position as a "force" to be reckoned with. With over 8 kiosks, salesforce showed off its mobile, training, AppBuilder and foundation products. As heard here, salesforce.com has embraced cloud computing and mashables:



By taking full advantaged of Google Docs, salesforce.com has made certain that non-profit organizations can perform day-to-day operations as efficiently as for-profit entities.

The feature that impressed this reporter the most was the opportunity splits. Having planned CRM implementations, customized salesforce.com and trained sales managers in a previous life, I've noticed that many sales people are very territorial. If they do not get credit for bringing home a sale, things could get ugly fast. With opportunity splits, no one will get hurt. So, salesforce.com in its own way is promoting non-violence in the workplace :-)

Users are always looking for a way to easily organize, access and report on their contacts and projects. salesforce.com is a great way to manage all of these tasks. Don't believe me, try salesforce.com for free, but don't fall in love with it until you have checked out its ticket price. If you are a micro-business owner, take a look at my review of OfficeInteractive. As far as pricing and ease of use goes, it may be more your speed.
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Contact staff writer JC Lamkin at 215-843-1039 or jclamkinpmp@gmail.com.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Employment Opportunity: New Media Coordinator


New Media Coordinator
Kor Hotel Group
Los Angeles, CA

Kor is seeking a New Media Coordinator to assist the marketing team with current online marketing efforts/campaigns. Kor is seeking for an individual who has some knowledge in search engine optimization / marketing, 1-3 of experience in managing pay-per-click campaigns, paid inclusion, or organic search marketing campaign, and strong analytical skills. Kor is seeking those who have experience in blog creations and those who have relationships with key on-line media reps

Desired Skills: Among the main responsibilities include researching and developing Internet Marketing strategies, submitting website content to search engines and directories, writing / modifying meta tags, monitoring online campaigns regularly and making recommendations to improve performance, maintaining relationships with various online partners and teams, collaborating with the SEM team to propose changes and enhancements to search marketing strategies, and keeping current on the latest trends in search marketing space.

Additionally, qualities needed:
- BA from an accredited college or university required
- 1-3 years of on-line/media marketing of the above mentioned experience
- Strong demonstrated writing and research skills

If you are looking to join an expanding company with endless opportunities for growth, please forward your resume to recruiter@thekorgroup.com or fax resume to 323-930-3785. Please visit Kor at www.thekorgroup.com.
EOE

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What is Scroogle?


Did you know that you can delete most spam and blogs by adding -com to your search terms? Scroogle does. No cookies. No search-term records. Access log deleted within 48 hours.

Scroogle, a proxy search engine, is a self proclaimed Google arch-nemesis. Campaigning for internet search freedom and liberty, Scroogle allows surfs to search minus the Big Brother Monkey on your back. Scroogle enables Wi-Fi internet user to surf securely. Scroogle cuts down on the profiling of service providers. If you use the internet while at work, Scroogle will eliminate your employer's ability to monitor your web surfing. This stealth-mode search leader is a big hit among youngsters who use public computers.

For Scroogle, SSL is used to hide your search terms from anyone who might be monitoring traffic between your browser and Scroogle's servers. This encryption happens when you send your search terms to Scroogle, and it also happens when Scroogle sends the results of your search back to you. No one snooping between your browser and Scroogle can figure out what you were looking for, because the information is encrypted and looks like gibberish. The connection between Scroogle and Google, which still must happen for every search, is not encrypted because Google doesn't use SSL. However, this connection is not associated with you at that point, and only Scroogle knows who entered those search terms. Your IP address is dropped before your search terms are sent to Google.

Most employers monitor the websites visited by their employees. There are impressive "employer spyware" packages such as Websense that they use to do this. Because the GET method is preferred by almost all search engines (see this page), even if the employer sees only the web address that you used to arrive at Google, he already knows the search terms you requested. With a record of all the search terms you've used while you were at work, each with a date and time recorded in his log, your employer has a pretty good idea of what you've been thinking. There are no laws that prevent employers from doing this sort of snooping.

If you use Wi-Fi and you haven't set up your router for secure operation, your neighbors could see what you are doing on the web. Again, your search terms might be interesting to them.

In some countries, the government could be monitoring your web activity by requiring your service provider to log the sites you visit, and make the logs available on demand. In fact, most governments wouldn't even have to ask the service provider for this information. They could tap the line upstream of the provider, and just look for packets containing www.google.com/search. Next to this are your search terms in plain text, with your IP address in the same packet. Government spies salivate at the thought of data-mining this information. With your search terms revealing what you are thinking, and the email you send revealing your network of associates, that's almost everything they need to know about you.

Besides encrypting everything between your browser and Scroogle, there are other details that may interest you about SSL. We prefer the POST method over the GET method, but if you use SSL, even the GET method is secure. You will see the Scroogle address and the search terms in your browser address bar with the GET method only because the browser displays this before it starts the SSL negotiation with Scroogle. Those search terms don't go any further than your browser. The SSL in your browser strips off the portion of the URL after the question mark, and then provides this information to Scroogle only after the secure connection has been established.

When the Scroogle results come back from an SSL search, and you click on any of the links shown on that secure page, there is another advantage. SSL does not allow the browser to record the address where that secure page came from, and attach it to any outgoing links on that page. Normally all browsers do this, and it's called the "referrer" address. But SSL blanks out the referrer, so that any site you click on from a Scroogle SSL page won't even know that you arrived at their site from Scroogle. The referrer will be blank, and your log entry will look like any of the hundreds of bots that crawl the web all day and night with similar blank referrers.

All of these are good reasons to use Scroogle's SSL option. It increases the load on our servers because the encryption handshaking is complex, but so far it hasn't been a problem for us. If it does become a problem, we hope to get more donations so that we can add more servers.

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Top Searched Tech gadgets of 2008

Image representing Yahoo! as depicted in Crunc...Image by via CrunchBaseWith 2008 coming to an end, Yahoo! has generated a list of the most-searched-for terms in the world of technology. After another banner year of exciting new gadgets and huge strides in mobility and gaming, these products were the most buzzed about by Yahoo! users.

The top searched tech gadgets of 2008.

This list includes:

1. Digital camera

2. iPhone

3. Wii

4. Xbox 360

5. PSP

6. Blackberry

7. Skype

8. PS3

9. iPod

10. Garmin

Here is the full list of top searched tech gadgets of 2008

In addition, Yahoo! has a host of other top searched for categories that are available, including the top ten overall searches, politicians, news, economy, celebrities, women and final farewells, as well as additional top searches in select areas throughout Yahoo!, such as on Yahoo! Green, Yahoo! Tech and the most Buzziest stories/topics of the year.

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Time is Money: PCMag.com Names the Fastest ISPs in America


Nevada, Virginia and Pennsylvania Have the Fastest Internet Service—
In a world where time equals money, slow Internet connections have real-life business and quality-of-life implications. Fiber optic connections have proven themselves the fastest way online, but they're still rare—and expensive. Which Internet service providers (ISPs) offer the fastest broadband? And in which state? After conducting over 200,000 individual tests as part of its third annual study, PCMag.com found that Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic connections are indeed the fastest overall service, and Cablevision's Optimum Online proved itself the fastest cable ISP in the United States. Likewise, Nevada, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are home to the fastest surf speeds—the full state ranking is below. PCMag.com’s “Best ISPs in America” list hits PCMag.com on December 2.

To uncover the nation’s best ISPs, PCMag utilized the custom-designed SurfSpeed application (a utility that grabs pages from several popular Web sites to measure actual Internet surfing speed) and pored through data from over 17,000 profiles (that is, unique IP addresses).

Cable vs. DSL: DSL and cable lines were for a time synonymous in people’s minds, but cable has clearly taken off in terms of sheer speed. Cable connections are 47 percent faster than DSLs. Cablevision’s Optimum Online tops the list, with an average nationwide SurfSpeed of 839 Kbps. And 61 percent of users declared themselves satisfied with the service. Even the slowest cable service provider (Earthlink, averaging 565 Kbps) was faster than some DSL providers, from CenturyTel at 520 Kbps down to Alltell’s measly 357. FrontierNet is the fastest DSL provider in the nation, averaging SufSpeeds of 724 Kbps. And, perhaps most importantly, just 27 percent of DSL users reported themselves satisfied.

State by State: Analyzing regions offers insight and challenges, but the region with the fastest Internet service—the West—is just 14 Kbps faster than the slowest, the South at 551 Kbps. The difference between states, on the other hand, is shocking, with No. 1 Nevada offering residents Internet more than twice as fast as bottom-ranked New Mexico.

The PCMag Fastest ISPs in America 2008 - State Ranking:

Ranking State SurfSpeed (Kbps)
1 Nevada 781
2 Virginia 765
3 Pennsylvania 747
4 New Jersey 727
5 Connecticut 716
6 New York 714
7 Nebraska 707
8 Oklahoma 695
9 Massachusetts 695
10 Maryland 691
11 Illinois 681
12 Georgia 679
13 California 666
14 Oregon 665
15 Delaware 646
16 Washington 625
17 New Hampshire 615
18 Minnesota 609
19 Texas 605
20 Ohio 600
21 North Dakota 593
22 Colorado 564
23 Florida 562
24 South Dakota 560
25 Alabama 556
26 Kentucky 547
27 Michigan 544
28 Missouri 539
29 North Carolina 534
30 Kansas 528
31 Indiana 524
32 Utah 517
33 Rhode Island 516
34 Arizona 505
35 Tennessee 474
36 Louisiana 470
37 Idaho 461
38 South Carolina 457
39 Montana 455
40 Maine 427
41 West Virginia 417
42 Mississippi 413
43 Arkansas 405
44 Arizona 402
45 Wisconsin 402
46 Iowa 398
47 Vermont 391
48 Wyoming 379
49 Hawaii 378
50 New Mexico 322
National avg 557

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Consumers Flock to Cyber Monday for Holiday Shopping





As more people avoid mall mania on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is gaining in popularity to become the biggest online shopping day of the year. While online shopping makes life easier, the question still remains…”WHAT do I get my friends and family for the holidays?!”
Join Jane Buckingham, style and trend expert, as she a unique look at this increasingly popular shopping day. She'll also have the top online tricks and tips, as well as inspiring gift ideas for any budget!

Statistics show the number of Cyber Monday shoppers more than tripled between 2005 and 2006 and according to a Reuters report, Cyber Monday traffic increased 26% in 2007 as compared to 2006.

While online shopping makes life easier, the question still remains…”WHAT do I get my friends and family for the holidays?!” Trend expert Jane Buckingham, author of "The Modern Girl's Guide to Life," and Editor-in-Chief of Gifts.com, discusses online shopping tricks and tips, the latest features from Gifts.com and inspiring gift ideas for any budget.

- How to personalize your online shopping experience

- Hot gifts ideas for under $25

- Online shopping features that can factor in a person’s budget, wish list and personality profile

- Gift Gurus – if you hate shopping, let the gift-giving experts do the work for you

- Procrastinator? Picky? Last minute gift ideas and the hard-to-shop for

Friday, November 21, 2008

Christopher Ferguson, NASA Astronaut

portrait astronaut christopher fergusonPhiladelphia's own, NASA Astronaut, Christopher Ferguson may be seeing stars right now, but Technically Speaking's own, JC Lamkin had a chance to catch up to him when he was on the ground. Listen in to the interview to find out how Christopher Ferguson (Captain, USN) became an astronaut.


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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Speed up the PC – Robust CyberDefender Application Streamlines and Extends Computer Life


Today, CyberDefender launched its new Registry Cleaner application, speeding up the common PC by ridding the registry of the junk, clutter, and holes. Now is not the time to be spending thousands of dollars on a new computer, instead save money by speeding up the old one.
  • The CyberDefender Registry Cleaner not only keeps the computer running faster, but also keeps it running for a longer time.”
  • CyberDefender Registry Cleaner automatically detects and corrects many of the most common problems including: Invalid paths, fonts, file types, CLSID, DLLs, sound, help files, shell extensions, AppEvents and class keys.
  • It allows the user to quickly and easily undo any changes that are made to the computer in case a problem occurs, ensuring the safety of the computer and data files.
  • It is easy to use for novice and advanced computer users.
  • The program offers responsive and helpful customer support to sure make certain registry problems are eliminated.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Every parents nightmare, cyberbullying


Every parents nightmare - a website uploaded with exposing pictures of your child, death threats coming to them through their cell phones, or harassing emails sent out in their name.

With Cyberbullying going on in our communities/nation/world, a cyberbullying, Derek R. Randel, Stopping School Violence LLC, 847-853-4308 expert lends himself to helping those in need. Derek is a professional speaker, used to live audiences, call ins, and the need for spontaneous remarks. His solutions for parents include:
  • Time to talk
  • Internet in the bedroom
  • Computer locations
  • How to respond
  • Saving the documents
  • Personal information
  • Who to contact
  • Signs to look for
  • Social networking sites
  • Types and examples of cyberbullying
If you want to know more, please visit the stoppingschoolviolence.com website.


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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Taking the dumb out of Smart Phones


More and more we are realizing how smart phones permeate our lives and how dangerous it could be to place bank info, user names and passwords on a device that could so easily crash or go missing.

Someone has to take the dumb out of Smart Phones!

Smart phone users tend to place all types of personal information on their devices simply because it’s so convenient. Yet, if their iPhones crash (which happens more than we’d like) or their Blackberries or Windows Mobile devices go lost or stolen, all of that data gets lost or – even worse – ends up in the wrong hands.

Also, when a smart phone goes missing or crashes, users often lose files that don’t get backed up on their computers: music, ring tones, text messages and other files. Listeners (many of whom use Smart Phones) can come to understand the seriousness of carrying around a device with so much valuable data and the need to protect it.

CyberSynchs (www.cybersynchs.com) is a cool, easy and economical solution to losing you data. CyberSynchs is a small application that loads onto your phone and backs up all of the data to their secure server. What’s even better is that the CyberSynchs web server allows you to erase all of the data from your smart phone should it go missing.

Earlier this year, Amos Winbush, CyberSynchs’ founder discovered that his iPhone had crashed and his personal and professional life came to a screeching halt. The idea for CyberSynchs actually came to him one night after learning that he’d never retrieve the data from his crashed iPhone.


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Saturday, November 8, 2008

Barcampphilly

Image representing barcampphilly
Like Podcampphilly, BarcampPhilly is sort of a lecture for computer users (mostly social media) who understand that collaboration is the key to learning. However, instead of one person doing all of the talking, everyone discusses their own experiences with a certain topic. This knowledge sharing technique is unique in that normally, opinion leaders prefer to hoarde information for themselves. The feeling is that hording will give them an edge. Barcamp operates on a different premise.

During the November 8, 2008 Barcampphilly, over 100 computer user collaborated on ROI for Social Media (Bus./Mktg.); Using Social Networks for Social Change: facebook, myspace & more (especially for nonprofits) ; Building Better Web Developers - What should colleges be teaching?, What Tech stuff is Happening in Philly and more.

Located in the University of the Arts, this un-conference had intentional focus on openness and collaborative learning.


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Friday, October 31, 2008

Video Your Vote


This year's election has been trying for everyone. Admittedly, there have been some quite humorous moments. However, voters are exhausted. Volunteers are fatigued. And, we have yet to reach our climax. Take heart, we are closing in on November 4th and Technically Speaking Radio is right there with you; so, we close in on it together.

Good news, we are not alone. Video the Vote wants to join us for the final days of our journey. Video the Vote is helping us monitor our democracy. This is a nationwide initiative. If you are interested in citizen journalism, you can provide a video record of election issues in real time. Video the Vote will then distribute footage to media outlets. If you do not have a camera, but would like to participate, you can sign-up as a dispatcher. Partners for this initiative include NAACP, YouTube and PBS. So, Video Your Vote !

Regarding filming your vote, please fee free to review the laws in your respective state. http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/11/06/state-laws-vary-on-polling-place-photography/

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Free computer class: Using Blogs

For Immediate Release


Free computer class: Using Blogs

Philadelphia, PA, --- Promoting an organization's agenda in the 21st century takes an internet presence. But, how does an organization or individual on a shoestring budget convey information via the internet? With the ongoing Internet evolution, community members have more tools at their fingertips than ever before to accomplish this required self-promotion.

On Saturday, November 15, 2008, Liberation Fellowship Community Development Corporation will host a free computer workshop class called, "Using Blogs" to teach individuals and organizations how to use the internet as an excellent resource for hunting, gathering of resources and promoting their agendas.

This workshop is an excellent opportunity for grass roots organizations and community members to learn more about a wide range of e-topics, including some fantastic how-to content for social networks and other tools.

During this 3 hour hands-on workshop, participants will learn: What is a blog? Why do I/my organization need one? How can I build and maintain a blog for free? How can I promote my blog? How can I use a blog to generate revenue?

You will also have the ability to participate from the comfort of your own home via the live webcast for this event, via http://technically-speaking-radio.blogspot.com, the Technically Speaking Radio, “Taking Tech to the Streets” web page, http://technically-speaking-radio.blogspot.com/2008/08/taking-tech-to-streets-event.html

Pre-requisites: Proficiency in using Microsoft Word and internet navigation savvy.


Event details
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: Northwest Regional Library,
68 West Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144-2795
(Greene St. & Chelten Ave.)
Meter parking available in the rear

Cost: Free

Participants must RSVP before November 1, 2008 via http://free-phila-computer-training.eventbrite.com. Space is limited.

This class will be facilitated by JC Lamkin, CNA, PMP, President of Gypsy Lane Technologies. As Philadelphia’s renowned tech expert, Ms. Lamkin was an invited panelist during the Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Legislative Conference on Internet Security; the Spotlight Speaker at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Governor's Advisory Commission on African American Affairs Business Exchange Breakfast; the 2007 Technology Council Gala Nominee for Educator of the Year; recipient of the Business Award from the Philadelphia Women's Opportunity Resource Center; and voted “Philadelphia's Most influential Young Socialite” by readers of the Philly blogspot, Destination Philadelphia. Ms. Lamkin will also be available to sign copies of her book, “Fabulous & Tech-filled.com, Volume 1”.

About Liberation Fellowship CDC
Liberation Fellowship Community Development Corporation (LFCDC) is a federally tax-exempt charitable organization under section 501 (c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. It was created in March, 2006 by members of Liberation Fellowship Church of Jesus, Inc. in Philadelphia, PA as a separate, stand-alone outreach and community development expression of the church's commitment to progressive personal and societal change.

We are focusing our activities on the leadership development of youth and adults. Consequently, our initial programs include the following: 1) youth and adult training programs that focus on three core leadership values and time-management skills; 2) a ten-week adult drawing basics course; 3) a ten-session environmental leadership training course that focuses on developing sustainable community organizations committed to solving environmental problems; 4) a four-hour course on website design that teaches individuals how to plan, organize and create a website from start to finish. 5) job-readiness training that prepares participants for job interviews, conflict resolution at work, and job-to-career strategies and methodologies.

About Gypsy Lane Technologies

Gypsy Lane Technologies (GLT), is a professional Internet solutions company based in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. We specialize in best-in-class social media, webcasting, online marketing, Flash multimedia, corporate identity and search engine optimization. GLT features an integrated team of web consultants, creative designers, writers, coders and marketing professionals that know how to get online results. Our business-driven approach separates us from typical web design companies. Gypsy Lane Technologies (GLT) sponsors the innovative community development radio show, Technically Speaking Radio, Fabulous & Techfilled.com, http://technically-speaking-radio.blogspot.com/

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